Well, the Granite City Train show is on March 1st this year which isn't so very far away especially as I still have a few road rally commitments with the SCCA (including putting on my own event). So lets get busy!

Right then. First things first, in order to get the creative juices flowing I whacked the US outline stock on the baseboard to see how it looked. If you remember this is one of the selling points of the layout, able to be worked as both English outline 4mm scale and US HO scale.

The first couple of pictures show an Athearn SD45-T shoving a quad set of ore jennies into the receiving road.

Where the Bachmann GE 45 tonner takes over to shove them over to the loading point.

The first thing that I notice, and now it's really bugging me, is the quality of the loading point. It was originally built as a mock up to test the fit and the function of the loading system. I clad it in the Scalescenes corrugated paper to have it ready for the December Granite City train show, which in the end I didn't attend due to my late father in laws then failing health. I was happy with it back then. Now I'm not and I think a rebuild, this time using embossed styrene is in order. Getting the second loading point to work would be great too. The one in question is the rearmost one. The tube that can be seen running between two structures. It's too narrow and the loading material gets stuck in there. A larger size tube is needed.

On a not totally unrelated subject. I just purchased a 2 car Bachmann Derby Lightweight DMU set for a different project. I think it might be fun to build a short ramshackle timber platform somewhere on the front receiving road so I could run it as a workman's train. It would add a little extra variety to the operations.

So, rebuild the loading facility, add a platform and make sure the darned thing works. Do you think I can do that in 4 1/2 weeks?